Hot Chocolate, Red Socks and Harry Potter
by MyPartnerInCrime
Summary: Short little one shot about Arthur bringing Merlin along to his rugby training to meet his friends, Merlin is worried about meeting Arthur's best and highly protective friend, Leon, but it seems they share a certain interest.


**Oookay! I'm SO sorry for my pathetic updating-ness of Eyes of Fire! I have recently had lots of work to do and to be honest...I've sort of lost...my inspiration...for now anyway, I really hope I will continue it!**

**This is a short little one shot because it popped into my head and I thought, hey, why not? My FIRST slash story...although it hasn't got a very slashy content. xD Just some fluff. **

**Tell me what you think?**

**Disclaimer: Merlin is not mine!  
**

* * *

"This is an extremely bad idea Arthur." muttered Merlin as Arthur tugged him along by the hand.

"Don't be ridiculous. My ideas are never anything if not incredibly genius and marvellous." he stated, quickening his purposeful stride.

"I'm serious! You told me what happened to Valiant!" protested Merlin in slight panic.

"Yeah, well…Valiant was a…" he glanced briefly at Merlin, knowing how he hated swearing. "…an idiot. He deserved it."

"But what if Leon thinks _I'm_ an idiot?" Merlin persisted in his argument.

"He won't." He grinned with confidence. They were now approaching the large field with two large posts on either end with a bar across them, forming two proud 'H's. Between these were a group of red and yellow clad rugby players, stretching and doing other exercises that Merlin thought made them look actually rather silly.

They all turned as Arthur and Merlin reached the edge of the pitch. Merlin could spot Arthur's friend Leon and hunched his shoulders slightly when he saw his suspicious glare. Arthur shrugged off his jacket, pulled up his red socks and squeezed Merlin's hand.

"You're hands a freezing! Go into the clubhouse and get some hot chocolate, we'll come in after training." He gave Merlin one last beautiful smile, before turning and jogging towards the others.

It was warm inside the clubhouse and he met a lovely girl called Gwen, who made him some hot chocolate in the kitchen. Afterwards they both went back outside and sat at the side of the pitch, watching the boys practice. Gwen cheered when one of the boys did a particularly spectacular tackle.

"That's Lance." She said with adoration in her voice.

"He's good." Merlin smiled.

"Not as good as Arthur. Goodness that boy can tackle." She shook her head with a chuckle. "Although, of course, Lance is _much_ better looking." She glanced at Merlin from the corner of her eye with a sly smile on her face. Merlin snorted.

"I beg to differ, Arthur is far more aesthetically pleasing. But don't tell him that." He told her in mock seriousness. "No need to encourage his already too large ego." Gwen laughed.

When the group started to wrap up Merlin tensed.

"What's wrong?" asked Gwen, frowning.

"I think Leon's going to kill me." he muttered.

"Oh don't be silly. Leon's like a soft teddy bear, he's just overprotective of Arthur, that's all." She smiled, patting him on the shoulder. "Just show you mean no harm to Arthur and you'll be fine." Merlin nodded, watching Arthur trudge towards him and did not see Gwen's slightly worried look of uncertainty. She knew how protective Leon was of Arthur, and hoped he would go easy on Merlin.

"Merlin!" Arthur called to him, grinned widely and jogging up to where he and Gwen stood. Despite his nervousness Merlin could not help the silly smile form on his lips.

"Have fun?" he asked the alarmingly muddy blonde in front of him.

"Yeah." answered Arthur enthusiastically. "Come and meet the team." He took hold of Merlin's sleeve and hauled him over to the other equally as muddy players. "Guys! This is Merlin." They all turned and scrutinized Merlin.

"Ah, the elusive Merlin." A young man with longish hair and a welcoming grin stepped forwards, extending a hand to shake Merlin's. "I was wondering when we'd get to finally meet you. I'm Gwaine."

"Err, hi." A couple of others came up and introduced themselves, some walked off to the clubhouse and then it was just Arthur, Merlin and Leon. Leon walked up to Merlin, still not smiling or showing any outward friendly gesture.

"Arthur, could you leave us for a moment?" he asked, smiling somewhat stiffly.

"Sure, I'll see you in a moment Merlin." He winked and smiled in reassurance then left the two of them, ignoring Merlin's silent _'Don't leave me! He's going to kill me!'_.

"So. Merlin." The young dark haired man visibly gulped.

_

* * *

Five minutes later._

Just as Arthur was wondering how Merlin and Leon were going, the clubhouse door banged open to reveal the pair.

"Cos Harry was the last horcrux, right?"

"No, no. Cos after Harry is supposedly 'dead', Neville kills the snake doesn't he?"

"Oh yeah! With the sword of Gryffindor."

"Yeah, because it's impregnated with basilisk venom. Ah, Neville was always one of my favourite characters."

"Well you do have similar ears."

"Hey!" They both turned, chuckling to see everyone staring at them, wide eyed and rather surprised.

* * *

"See, that didn't go so bad did it?" Arthur murmured, tracing lazy patterns on Merlin's hipbone.

"No, it was fine." He grinned. "You'll have to take me to one of your matches one day."

"So you can have more nerdy Harry Potter conversations with Leon?"

"_No_. So I can support my _gorgeous_ boyfriend and cheer when you score tries and whatnot."

"_Sure. _You're just using me so you can have someone to share your pathetic obsession with!" Arthur swept an arm across his eyes in dramatic sorrow. Merlin sighed and rolled his eyes, wriggling in his position slightly which was currently: lying on their sofa, legs draped over Arthur who was half-heartedly watching something on the TV.

After a few moments, Arthur turned to ask Merlin something but stopped when he realised he was fast asleep, mouth slanted slightly in a content smile.


End file.
